Guide for super visa families · Updated August 2026
Comparison sites rank these policies by monthly price. We read the policy wordings instead, and compared them on the things that decide whether a claim gets paid.
How to use this page. We do not sell insurance, broker it, or earn commission on any policy named here. This comparison exists because the questions that matter clinically — how long a pre-existing condition must have been stable, whether a repeat prescription is covered, whether you must phone before walking into a clinic — are rarely the questions comparison sites answer. Every figure below was read from the insurer’s own document and is dated. Your own certificate is the only document that governs your coverage.
Read this first if you are choosing a policy. Canada requires only “a minimum emergency coverage of $100,000”. Every plan below is emergency medical insurance, so none of them is designed to pay for routine appointments, ongoing management of a known condition, or a repeat prescription. Our companion guide explains what super visa insurance won’t cover and why — start there if you have not read it.
Key facts at a glance
In this guide
We did not compare price. Premiums change constantly, they depend on age, coverage amount, deductible and trip length, and dozens of comparison sites already quote them in real time. Repeating that here would add nothing and would be out of date within weeks.
Instead we compared the six dimensions that decide whether a claim is paid:
Sources and dates. Blue Cross: policy 11XVV0198A (2025-06). GMS: policy 2510CA2024, effective 25 October 2024. Allianz: certificate A096PL-1023, October 2023. Travelance Premier: policy wording effective January 2026. Manulife: plan comparison chart effective 2 October 2023. Each was located from the insurer’s own product page, not from search results. TuGo does not publish its Visitors to Canada policy wording — its figures below come from TuGo’s own published guidance, last updated 22 January 2025, and are labelled accordingly throughout.
| Brand | Underwriter | Stability period | Pre-existing conditions | Prescriptions | Age limit |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Manulife (CoverMe) | Not disclosed on the product page | 180 days (Enhanced plan) | Basic: not covered · Standard: must not have existed in 180 days · Enhanced: must have been stable 180 days | Up to $500, max 30-day supply | Basic: none stated · Standard & Enhanced: 85 |
| GMS | Group Medical Services | 180 days | Covered if stable for 180 days | Max 30-day supply · refills and the associated physician’s fee excluded | 80 at effective date |
| Travelance | Old Republic Insurance Company of Canada | 180 days (Premier) | Essential: not covered · Premier: ages 70–79 exclude heart, brain and lung · ages 80–85 not covered | Not captured — see certificate | 85 |
| Allianz Global Assistance | Allianz Global Assistance | 90 days (≤59) · 180 days (60–89) | Covered if stable for the applicable period | Up to $1,000, max 30-day supply | 89 |
| Blue Cross (Ontario) | Canassurance Insurance Company | 3 months (≤54) · 6 months (55–79) | Covered if stable; chronic stabilisation excluded | Excludes chronic stabilisation including prescription renewal | 79 |
| TuGo (published guidance) | Not published | 120 days (≤59) · 180 days (60–69) · 365 days (70+) | Not published in an open wording | Not published in an open wording | Not published in an open wording |
Read from each insurer’s own documents, August 2026. Document versions are listed above. TuGo rows come from published guidance rather than a policy wording. Figures change — check your certificate.
This is the first thing to check and the last thing most people look at. IRCC requires the policy to name the company that issued it, and is explicit that “insurance brokers and insurance claims administrators are not insurance companies.”
Among the six brands we reviewed, half are not the insurer:
Why it matters at the border and at the hospital. A border services officer can ask to see the policy on each entry, and IRCC requires it to carry the insurer’s name. At the point of care, the company you phone for pre-authorisation may not be the company on the marketing. Find the underwriter’s name on the certificate before you fly, and keep the assistance number with the policy number.
If you read only one section, read this one. There is no industry standard, and the spread is wide enough to change who is insurable.
| Traveller age | Allianz | Blue Cross | TuGo (guidance) | Manulife · GMS · Travelance |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Under 55 | 90 days | 3 months | 120 days | 180 days |
| 55–59 | 90 days | 6 months | 120 days | 180 days |
| 60–69 | 180 days | 6 months | 180 days | 180 days |
| 70–79 | 180 days | 6 months | 365 days | 180 days |
| 80+ | 180 days (to 89) | Not eligible | 365 days | Varies — see age limits |
Compiled from each insurer’s own documents, August 2026. Manulife’s 180 days applies to its Enhanced plan; see the section below, because the Standard plan applies a different test. Travelance’s 180 days applies to Premier and is subject to the condition-specific exclusions in the table above.
What this means for a 72-year-old. Take a grandmother whose blood pressure medication was adjusted seven months before she flies. Under Manulife, GMS, Travelance or Allianz her stability window is 180 days, so the change falls outside it. Under Blue Cross the window is 6 months, so it also falls outside. Under TuGo’s published guidance the window for her age is 365 days — the change falls inside it, and the condition is not stable.
Same woman, same medication, same travel date. Insurable for her main health risk at five of six, and not at the sixth. This is invisible on a price comparison.
Manulife sells three tiers, and the difference between two of them is easy to misread. Both mention 180 days. They are not the same test.
| Plan | How pre-existing conditions are treated |
|---|---|
| Basic | Not covered at all |
| Standard | Covered only if the condition “did not exist within 180 days prior to the effective date” |
| Enhanced | Covered if the condition has been “stable for at least 180 days prior to the effective date” |
Source: Manulife Visitors to Canada plan comparison chart, effective 2 October 2023.
Standard requires the condition not to have existed at all in that window. Enhanced allows a condition that existed, provided nothing about it changed. For a parent with long-standing hypertension, Standard is effectively no pre-existing cover, while Enhanced may well cover it. Anyone scanning for “180 days” across the two would assume they were equivalent.
Manulife’s Enhanced plan also requires a medical questionnaire for applicants aged 55 to 85 — which is the age band most super visa applicants fall into.
No plan we reviewed covers repeat prescribing as a routine benefit. The differences are in how explicitly each says so.
| Insurer | Prescription position |
|---|---|
| GMS | Max 30-day prescription. “Refills of prescriptions, and any associated physician’s expenses, are excluded from coverage.” |
| Blue Cross | Excludes “any treatments required for the continuous stabilization of a chronic medical condition, including the renewal of a prescription.” |
| Allianz | Up to $1,000, not exceeding a 30-day supply, when not admitted as an in-patient |
| Manulife | Up to $500, not exceeding a 30-day supply, within emergency treatment |
| Travelance · TuGo | Not captured from open documents |
The practical consequence. A parent staying several years on a super visa will run out of medication brought from home, and a prescription written outside Canada cannot be dispensed by an Ontario pharmacy. On these wordings, both the Ontario assessment and the refill are normally out of pocket. Plan for it before departure rather than in month seven.
Whether you hand over a card at the desk matters more than people expect, because an emergency bill in Canada can run to thousands of dollars before any reimbursement arrives.
Blue Cross also requires a call first. Its policy states that “when a medical emergency occurs during a trip, you must inform Blue Cross Travel Assistance before going to a hospital or to a clinic, otherwise, your claim may be denied.” A family driving to a walk-in on a Saturday without phoning could lose the claim on that basis alone. In a genuine emergency, call 911 first — no insurer expects otherwise.
Super visa applicants are parents and grandparents, so the ceiling matters, and several plans narrow well before it.
There is no single best plan, because the answer depends on your parent’s age and when their condition last changed. The stability period is the deciding factor and it varies from 90 days to 365 days across the six insurers reviewed. For a traveller aged 70 or over, TuGo’s published guidance requires 365 days of stability while Manulife, GMS, Travelance and Allianz require 180 days and Blue Cross requires 6 months. Check the date of the last medication change, dosage change, test or referral against the stability period in the certificate you are considering.
Of the six reviewed, Allianz Global Assistance at 90 days, but only for travellers aged 59 or under; from age 60 it is 180 days. Blue Cross uses 3 months for travellers 54 and under and 6 months from 55. For most super visa applicants, who are typically 60 or older, the practical range is 180 days to 365 days.
Ontario Blue Cross policies are underwritten by Canassurance Insurance Company. Travelance policies are underwritten by Old Republic Insurance Company of Canada, based in Hamilton, Ontario; Travelance describes itself on its own policy as having marketed and distributed the plan. Sun Life does not offer super visa insurance and refers customers to TuGo. IRCC requires the policy to name the insurance company that issued it and states that brokers and claims administrators are not insurance companies.
None of the six covers repeat prescribing as a routine benefit. GMS excludes refills of prescriptions and any associated physician’s expenses by name. Blue Cross excludes treatments required for the continuous stabilization of a chronic condition, including the renewal of a prescription. Allianz covers prescribed drugs up to $1,000 and a 30-day supply when not admitted as an in-patient, and Manulife up to $500 and a 30-day supply within emergency treatment. A prescription written outside Canada cannot be dispensed by an Ontario pharmacy.
Allianz has the widest range at 15 days to 89 years. Manulife’s Standard and Enhanced plans apply up to 85 and Travelance to 85, though Travelance excludes pre-existing conditions entirely from 80 and excludes pre-existing heart, brain and lung conditions from 70. GMS sets a maximum age of 80 at the effective date. Blue Cross has the lowest ceiling reviewed at 79, and restricts its $150,000 option to those aged 74 and under.
With at least one of these insurers, yes. Blue Cross states that when a medical emergency occurs you must inform Blue Cross Travel Assistance before going to a hospital or clinic, otherwise the claim may be denied. Check your own certificate for a similar condition, save the assistance number before you need it, and keep the policy number with it. In a genuine emergency, call 911 first.
Premiums depend on age, coverage amount, deductible and length of stay, they change frequently, and many comparison sites quote them live. Repeating them here would add nothing and would go out of date quickly. This page compares the terms that decide whether a claim is paid, which change far less often and are much harder to find.
Related guides
Every figure on this page was read in August 2026 from the insurer’s own document, located from the insurer’s own product page rather than from search results: Blue Cross policy 11XVV0198A (2025-06); GMS policy 2510CA2024, effective 25 October 2024; Allianz certificate A096PL-1023, October 2023; Travelance Premier policy wording effective January 2026; Manulife plan comparison chart effective 2 October 2023. TuGo does not publish its Visitors to Canada policy wording, so its figures come from TuGo’s own published guidance, last updated 22 January 2025, and are labelled throughout. Insurers revise wordings and withdraw plans without notice. This page describes how these terms generally work and does not tell you whether a particular claim will be paid — only your insurer can, against your own certificate. Not insurance, legal or medical advice. In an emergency, call 911.
If your parent needs a doctor for something the policy won’t pay for, a consultation with an Ontario physician is flat $82, with an itemised receipt whether or not you claim.
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